Coretta, Coretta

Tuesday night, January 31st, 2006. I was lying on the bed after a long day. My partner and I were discussing events of our day, while the television played muted in the background. While talking about my afternoon class, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, pictures of Coretta Scott King flashing on the television. I knew immediately, the Queen of the Kings was dead.

I turned up the television volume for confimation that indeed one of our last surviving civil rights movement heroes was no longer amonst the living. I felt a deep sadness, although I never really knew much about Coretta Scott King. I always thought she was a beautiful woman. Even back in the sixties when she wore what we then called 'cat eyeglasses.' She seemed to have beautiful skin, lovely long hair, and a face masked in serenity. Whether in photos of her marching with her husband, Dr. King, or speaking out on issues after his death, her demeanor never waivered. It was placid without being empty. Still without being numb. She had an air of dignity and grace that takes me back to my childhood and the black women at church with their feathered hats, gloves, polished shoes, purses and fur stoles. Regal and magnificent, Mrs. King was a symbol for the movement and for her people.

I remember when Dr. King was assasinated. I was ten years old. My classmates and I were frightened when we left school early that day. There were rumblings in the streets of riots, and snipers on rooftops. It didn't make much sense to me, because I had been taught that Dr. King was a man of peace and non-violence. Why would people forget what he stood for so quickly?

Things remained calm in my neighborhood that night. I remember looking at cloudy black & white pictures in a photo album of my mother and Aunt Maxine at the 1963 March on Washinton. They were standing near the reflecting pool, wearing hats and sashes that identified them as a part of a group from New York. Although my mother never spoke much of that day, or why she decided to go to the march (I'd never known her to be political) those photos were a source of pride for me. My mother was there when Dr. King said, "I have a dream." My mother took part in a historic occaision.

During Dr. Kings' funeral stories about him and the processions were all over the television, just like a few years proir when President Kennedy was shot. But this time, I did not resent the fact that my cartoons were preempted. Perhaps it was because I was five years older, but I know it was also because Dr. King, this Black man who was so famous and important resonated deep inside my ten year old psyche. And now, his widow and her children were left all alone. And yet at the funeral, just like Jackie Kennedy, Mrs. King's serenity made an iconic impression.

Mrs. King dedicated the years after her husbands death to upholding his legacy. She created the King Center in Atlanta, which is a very moving place to visit. She spearheaded the drive to create a national holiday honoring her husband. And in her later years, she spoke out in favor of gay marriage, even though some of her children, including her daughter Bernice King, a minister, organized a march to promote an anti-gay marriage agenda in 2004. Interesting how the daughter of the world's greatest civil rights leader, a woman who a few years earlier would not have been accepted as a minister (and is still not accepted in some religious quaters,) could now stand against civil rights of others. Her mother knew this was a civil rights issue plain and simple. And yet, her daughter couldn't see past her "God."

Mrs. King died at 1 a.m. at the Santa Monica Health Insitute in Rosarita Beach, Mexico. She was fighting ovarian cancer when she arrived there on January 26th. She went peacefully in her sleep, which is no less than she desereved. After a life thrust on the international stage. A husband she had to share with the world. Children she had to raise on her own. A legacy she had to protect. Coretta Scott King has earned her peaceful rest. In my heart, I imagine her reunited with the husband she only had for 14 years of marriage here on earth. Now they can share eternity together. Amen.